


All's Fair in Love and War

by shippingandmusicians



Category: Uncharted (Video Games)
Genre: Angst, F/F, In a warped canon universe, Injury, There's no Sam because it wasn't convenient for the plot sorry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-05
Updated: 2017-09-05
Packaged: 2018-12-24 07:14:01
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,467
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12007716
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shippingandmusicians/pseuds/shippingandmusicians
Summary: Nadine and Chloe are looking for the Tusk as business partners. A "partnership" is soon revealed to entail something entirely different.





	All's Fair in Love and War

**Author's Note:**

> Basically I'm whipped for these two and there's a goddamn drought of fic so I took a crack at it.

"Are you sure we're heading in the right direction? We've been walking for five hours," Nadine says.  
"Haven't you any faith, partner?" Chloe asks with a grin.  
Nadine scoffs, “Certainly not in you.”  
“Oh, come on. It should be just up over this hi-“  
A frag grenade detonates between them before she can finish, hurling Chloe backwards down the hill and Nadine up into the underbrush. The blast is deafeningly loud and violent, spraying shrapnel into every surrounding surface. Nadine crashes heavily into a cradle of thorny branches bowing under her weight, momentarily dazed by the all-consuming ringing in her ears. She claws her way out of the bush and immediately draws her weapon, scanning the area around her. Chloe was right. There is a temple at the foot of the hill, although its stone facade is largely obscured by invasive vine growth. There is an abundance of ruins littered around the temple within the thigh-high grass, creating plenty of spaces for ambushing. She has no way of knowing where the enemy is and she cannot reach them without traversing the vulnerable hillside. There’s only one choice. She starts sprinting down, and immediately the rattle of the machine gun begins, lifting up clods of dirt around her feet. Her pulse is pounding loudly enough the drown our the macabre whistling of bullets. She trips over a rock in all her haste and slips into the mud, careening down the oily slope and finally losing enough momentum to slide to a stop behind a ruin.

Now she can spot the gunner in an alcove to her east, along with three other soldiers who’ve given up the pretense of stealth. She takes stock of her ammunition. Definitely not enough for a firefight. She looks around for other options and spots…Chloe. The only person unprofessional enough to wear a red shirt in jungle combat. She is slumped against a stone slab, torso twisted awkwardly away from her knees. Something’s wrong. She is motionless. Nadine’s sight is drawn away from Chloe by the shouting of men. The machine gun fire has stopped. They must be out looking for her. She quickly begins to crawl through the tall grass towards Chloe, electing flight over fight. The men are searching the wrong side of the hill. They must have lost their visual when she took the mudslide. She reaches Chloe and immediately takes her pulse, which is faint but still there. There are shrapnel wounds all over her torso and a nasty cut on her forehead where she must have been knocked out.

A sudden shot rings out from behind them, chipping a nearby tree. They’re going to have to move now. Nadine hauls Chloe up into a fireman’s carry and starts tracing a path behind cover into the safety of the valley. It takes every ounce of Nadine's strength to tread through the swampy earth with a heavy weight draped over her shoulders. The air is oppressively muggy and thickened by tension. She feels the slow trickle of Chloe’s blood down the nape of her neck onto her collar. Precarious situations like this one had always been present in her life. The one thing she had learned was that death is always scarier when it’s coming for someone else. She tells herself that Chloe is only a partner, a tool, a means to an end, and that this operation may be jeopardized but life will still go on. She’s always been a terrible liar.

They reach a burrow underneath the roots of a large tree and Nadine quickly pulls Chloe inside and covers the entrance with foliage. After waiting for an eternity, the men pass in front of them without detection and continue down an imagined trail. Nadine relaxes and relocates to a larger space just in front of the tree. Chloe is still unconscious but still breathing. Nadine removes a small surgical kit from her pants pocket and gets to work. She carefully tweezes out the shrapnel shards pitting Chloe’s torso and swabs the cuts with disinfectant. It won’t do much, considering the whole damn jungle is a tetanus infection waiting to happen. She moves to gingerly lifts up Chloe’s head and cleans up the gash before applying a bandage. Chloe begins to stir and opens her eyes, still hazy and unfocused.  
"Ross?"  
"Frazer." There's a slight smile emerging at the corners of Nadine's mouth that you wouldn't notice if you weren't looking for it. Which Chloe definitely isn't.  
"No kiss to wake me from my slumber?"  
"Do I look like Prince Charming to you?"  
"Only a thousand times better." Chloe doesn't mean for it to slip out but she's still not completely lucid.  
Nadine turns away, almost certainly to blush, and turns back with a poker face.  
"Can you walk?"  
Chloe struggles to her feet and does a good imitation of a newborn giraffe for a moment before finding her balance. "Let's go."  
She steers them back towards the temple and asks Nadine, "So what happened back there?"  
"Some of Asav's men ambushed us and I had to hide us until they gave up searching."  
"You carried me all the way here?"  
"Ja."  
"It really is all muscle then." She reaches out and squeezes Nadine's bicep, getting a dirty look.  
"Are you sure the men won't come back?"  
"Probably not. If they do, we can take care of them."  
"I hope they haven't destroyed the shrine. That's all they're good for. Pillaging and wreaking havoc."  
"I never was too inclined to men myself," Nadine says.  
Chloe gives her a sharp look but receives no explanation. Onwards to the temple they walk.

* * *

Later, they're sleeping under the stars in a valley. Chloe is on second watch. The dawn is breaking and spilling colors into the sky. A group of elephants travel over a distant hill, silhouettes dark against the sunrise. She shakes Nadine by the shoulder. Nadine jolts awake and grabs her by the shirtfront with one hand and her gun in the other. It takes her a moment to realize her pistol isn’t pointed at an enemy.  
“Sorry,” she says in a clipped tone, putting down the gun.  
Their faces are separated by a gap that is unnaturally small. Nadine’s fist is still tangled in Chloe’s shirt. Her face has a gentle glow to it in the lowlight.  
“Don’t be,” Chloe whispers. She leans back and straightens up.  
“I, um, just wanted to show you the elephants.” Her voice seems too loud and harsh for the muted atmosphere of the morning.  
Nadine looks up and her eyes follow them across the ridge. “They’re beautiful.”  
There isn’t anything for Chloe to say that would fill the space between them, so she stays silent for once. It’s the loneliest she’s felt in months.

* * *

 

Somehow, they’ve gotten into a situation where they’re leaping from a derailed train, Chloe only just catching the rim of the cliff above. Nadine barely latches onto Chloe before the whole structure crashes into the valley below. She’s holding her in a koala-like grip, legs clinched around her waist.  
“Well, this is rather romantic,” Chloe says, with that infuriatingly seductive tone of voice.  
“Start bloody climbing, will you?” Nadine huffs, more out of embarrassment than frustration. They haul themselves up onto steady ground and regain their composure.  
“I guess we’re even now,” Chloe says.  
“Nothing will ever compensate for having to put up with your constant commentary,” Nadine mutters.  
Chloe leans in with a conspiratorial tone, “You secretly love it.”  
“Is there anything I can do to get you to shut up?”  
“There is one thing,” Chloe playfully places a hand on her thigh.  
Nadine sighs and gives in, “I swear you’ll be the end of me, Frazer.”  
She kisses her. Chloe is feisty, not gentle, and certainly not afraid to let her hands roam. She slides them up the supple contours of Nadine's body, marveling at the sinuous ripple of muscles. Nadine pins her down and mouths at her neck, elegant and exposed. Chloe rolls her over so their positions are reversed, but it's only because Nadine lets her. Her fingers are tangling in Nadine's thick, gorgeous, hair, and she can feel wounds reopening by the sheer force of everything, but the pain only takes her higher.

* * *

 

"Fraze- Chloe," Nadine says.  
"I'd say we're on a first name basis now, considering we just had sex," Chloe interrupts.  
Nadine sighs,"You're right."  
They're driving back into the city to meet up with Sam and find out what to do with the recently retrieved artifact.  
Chloe shifts in her seat, "That wasn't a one-time thing, was it?"  
Nadine laughs, "I hope not."  
"Still partners?" Chloe asks, fingers dancing over the hickey on her neck.  
"Partners," Nadine agrees, pulling her in for a quick kiss that almost crashes the car. 

**Author's Note:**

> S.O.G.S (Save Our Gay Souls)  
> i'm on tumblr @shippingandmusicians


End file.
